Putin was joking about election support for Harris, Kremlin says; Zelenskyy hopes to meet with Trump next week

Russian President Vladimir Putin was joking when he said Moscow was supporting Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in November’s presidential election, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Sky News Arabia.

Putin said earlier this month that Russia wanted Harris to win the contest in a teasing comment that cited her “infectious” laugh as a reason to prefer her over Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump. The Russian leader’s remark prompted the White House to say Putin should stop commenting on the Nov. 5 election.

“It was a joke,” Lavrov said, when asked how much the change in U.S. president would affect Russia’s foreign policy. “President Putin has a good sense of humor. He often jokes during his statements and interviews.”

“I see no long-term differences in our attitude to the current or previous elections in the United States, because it is ruled by the notorious ‘deep state’,” Lavrov said, without giving evidence for that assertion.

Lavrov’s comments were published on the foreign ministry website on Friday.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he hoped to meet former President Donald Trump next week when he travels to the United States to present Kyiv’s “victory plan” in the war against Russia.

Zelenskyy will attend sessions of the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly and also plans to meet President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in separate meetings on Sept. 26.

The Ukrainian leader said he also hoped to meet Trump, the Republican presidential candidate.

“We will most likely have a meeting, I think, on September 26-27,” Zelenskyy told media late Friday, without providing further details.

Zelenskyy said in August he wanted to present his plan to Biden, Harris, and Trump. While Trump and Zelenskyy talked over the phone in July, they have not met in person since Trump’s 2017-2021 term.

Zelenskyy described the plan as a blueprint for how to force Russia to end its war diplomatically and said it depended on quick decisions by key allies from October to December this year.

At a critical juncture in the war, Zelenskyy is seeking to strengthen Ukraine with more weapons, and military, economic, and diplomatic support from the U.S., Kyiv’s key ally. He is expected to push Washington to lift restrictions on long-range missile strikes inside Russia.

Russian forces continue to advance slowly but steadily in eastern Ukraine despite Kyiv’s troops launching a surprise incursion last month into Russia’s Kursk region.

Zelenskyy has repeatedly said there is no alternative for a ‘just peace’ and ruled out freezing the war, saying it would simply postpone Russian aggression.